[ItzToday.com] Bollywood Blockbluster Ghatak Still Shines |
- Bollywood Blockbluster Ghatak Still Shines
- Ranbir Kapoor to be next Amitabh Bachchan
- Hindi Movie 'We Are family' Film Review
| Bollywood Blockbluster Ghatak Still Shines Posted: 03 Sep 2010 03:03 AM PDT Legendary filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak's "Meghe Dhaka Tara" completes 50 years this year. Sadly, despite critics globally considering it to be one of a handful of most important films from India, the excitement is not palpable. "The only retrospective of the film happened in Lincoln Centre in New York and another screening in Nandan in Kolkata," Ritaban Ghatak, Ritwik's son who is a filmmaker himself, told IANS. Many filmmakers and scholars say the haunting existential cry of the Bengali film's protagonist Neeta - "Dada ami banchte chai (Brother I want to live)" - is relevant even today, but few want to hear it. Set in a refugee camp, the film - literally meaning The Cloud Capped Star - shows the repercussions of partition through an impoverished genteel Hindu family. Based on Shaktipada Rajguru's novel by the same name, it was released in 1960. The film starred big names of Bengali cinema. The cast included Supriya Choudhury, Anil Chatterjee ad also Gita Ghatak, Bijan Bhattacharya, Niranjan Roy and Gyanesh Mukherjee. "First of all 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' is one of the first films on refugees and their problems," says journalist and film scholar Shoma Chaudhury. "Secondly, the female protagonist is one of the rarest characters in cinema history as she works not with the intention of becoming independent or to be liberated from a patriarchal society, but to sustain her extended family." Ghatak was a cinematic master who never got his due during his lifetime. But spurred by the efforts of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) students who studied under him - like Mani Kaul and Kumar Shahani - his stature has been resurrected after death in 1976. Today some say he is the greatest director India has produced, with "Meghe Dhaka Tara" widely considered his best work. Ashish Rajadhyaksha, an eminent film historian, believes accessibility to his films has not resulted in an increased understanding. "Most people see Ghatak's work as melodramatic. They have no clue about his technique, the specific politics in the film or even the geographic milieu that is screaming from it," he says. Rajadhyaksha was one of the first to articulate Ghatak's cinematic style in his book "Ritwik Ghatak: A Return to the Epic". He co-authored a second book on the director with Amrit Gangar, "Arguments-Stories". Says Gangar: "Ritwik Ghatak's oeuvre is becoming prophetic as we are growing as a nation." Chaudhury and Gangar say "Meghe Dhaka Tara" is one of the rare examples in the world where the movie towers over an otherwise average novel that it was based on. "Pained by partition, Ghatak, through his works, kept reminding us of this avoidable history. Fifty years of the film induces us to reflect upon the divisions emerging from the inequities and oppressive powers at play," Gangar told IANS. "The existential cry of Neeta echoes the cry of millions of men and women in India today. But somewhere, we have lost our ability to hear that cry, perhaps we don't even care. "'Meghe Dhaka Tara' remains ever so contemporary as it would keep questioning the state of our being, our increasingly self-centred and fragmentary being." Chaudhury agrees as she reminds us of the allegory of Neeta's death through tuberculosis. "TB back then was considered to be a disease of consumption. But it is not really TB that kills Neeta. She is instead consumed by her self-centred family which itself is trapped in its circumstances. The film shows a manifestation of violence rarely seen in cinema." Film historian Subhash Chheda, who is restoring another partition masterpiece, M.S. Sathyu's "Garm Hava", states that it is "Meghe Dhaka Tara" that inspired him to get into restoring cinema. "It is a bright sun of cinema that no amount of mediocre cinematic clouds in the world can hide." Ghatak, originally from what is now Bangladesh, considered himself an eternal refugee. He once described his restive mental state in these words: "My feet are not on my soil. That is my obstacle. How shall I find another soil and when? Because I have to return to my mother's womb to seek the source of this archetypal idiom." 
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| Ranbir Kapoor to be next Amitabh Bachchan Posted: 03 Sep 2010 02:59 AM PDT  After working with Ranbir Kapoor in two films, director Siddharth Anand feels the young actor has the potential to follow in the footsteps of megastar Amitabh Bachchan as the "complete Hindi film hero"."The day Ranbir does an action film and does it well, he has the potential to fill the void that Bachchan created," said Anand who teamed up with Ranbir for the second time for his new romantic comedy "Anjaana Anjaani" releasing Sep 24. The two had earlier worked together in "Bachna Ae Haseeno" (2008). Ranbir, 27, is the son of well-known Bollywood actors Rishi and Neetu Kapoor. "Ranbir is the perfect guy to play Anthony (a character played by Big B in 'Amar Akbar Anthony'), he can play coolie, he can play the characters Bachchan played in his prime. There is no one else but him," Anand told IANS. "He has got everything it takes to be the complete Hindi film hero that Bachchan was." Anand, who debuted with "Salaam Namaste" (2005), says he has tried to push the boundaries with his first film and completely smashed it with "Anjaana Anjaani". "I have torn the boundaries here. When you see the film, it's something unlike you have seen at any point of time. It's a love story but its situations are very unique," said the young director. "I made Ranbir do strange things. During the shooting of the song "Khuda jaane" in 'Bachna Ae Haseeno' I made him stand on the tip of a cliff and spread his arms and he was shit scared as he has a vertigo problem. "In 'Anjaana Anjaani' there is a sequence where they are stranded in the middle of an ocean. It was the Pacific Ocean and he had to dive into the freezing waters. He did it even though he has aquaphobia," said the director. Talking about the film that co-stars Priyanka Chopra, he said: " 'Anjaana Anjaani' is the story of two strangers who meet in strange circumstances and then part as strangers. So it's a very unique concept for a Hindi film, but it's deep-rooted as a Hindi commercial film. It has songs, stories, beautiful locations and fabulous performances." Siddharth says more than the actresses, he bonds well with actors. "I am a hero's director. I bond with my heroes more than I bond with my heroines. Once we become friends, I like to work with them repeatedly if they are okay with it. I have been fortunate enough to work with two superstars," said Anand. And what made him pair Ranbir with Priyanka? "I wanted to have a virgin pair. I wanted a brilliant actress because the film is only about the chemistry between two people. It's about their sparks, what they speak, and the banters to and fro. "Ranbir is a brilliant actor; so I needed someone who would be able to match that. Priyanka just fitted in unbelievably," said Anand. The director insists that he is very particular about the songs in his films. "I'm surprised people liked the song 'Hairat'. I was very clear that I wanted music for a love story that you cannot imagine. It doesn't belong to a love story. I didn't want mainstream music," said Anand. Asked if he was planning to explore only unique love stories, he said: "Not really. I am a storyteller. If I am in a mood to make you laugh, I will tell you a joke. If I want to scare you, I will tell you a horror story. So it depends on what comes to me at that point of time." 
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| Hindi Movie 'We Are family' Film Review Posted: 03 Sep 2010 12:28 AM PDT  Film: "We Are Family"; Cast: Kajol, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal; Directed by: Siddharth Malhotra; Rating: ****Some films are good to look at. Some feel good at heart. Very few mainstream films manage to look as good on the surface and also capture the heart. "We Are Family" is equally appealing from the outside and at the heart. It doesn't take us long into the narration to realize that the debutant director has his own ideas on how urban man-woman relationships work. Siddharth Malhotra brings the traditional compassion and large-heartedness of Sooraj Barjatya's films into the same line of vision as the urban fables about the man-woman relationship of Gulzar's "Ijaazat" and Govind Nihalani's "Drishti". The brew is invigorating and often very very moving in the way movies stopped moving us a long time ago. The basic premise and even chunks of sequences and dialogues are taken from Chris Columbus' "Stepmom". Are Kajol and Kareena Kapoor as powerful in portraying the wife and the other woman as Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts in the original? What if one says the two divas in the desi "Stepmom" are far more empathetic in their understanding of the complexities of a marriage that has not quite terminated and the alternative relationship which doesn't know where to go without disrespecting the earlier relationship? Kajol and Kareena share a compelling partnership in portraying a household that's run by two women. The intricacies of the triangle are worked out with heartwarming delicacy, so much so that you wonder why the director needed to keep any of elements from the Hollywood film. "We Are Family" takes the "Stepmom" saga to another level. It's an urban fable told with subtlety and a softness of touch which completely avoids excesses of emotions until the last ostensibly gut-wrenching finale when the narration gets excessively melodramatic. The rest of the film is remarkably devoid of extravagant emotions even though the situation described and defined by the plot is susceptible to acute bouts of overt emotion. Having three actors who know how to play down the pitch without taking away the edge in the narration surely helps the situation. Kajol needs absolutely no recommendation. Her transformation from physically healthy but restless in soul, to a dying but spiritually healed entity happens right in front of our eyes. The little-little things she does with her eyes and lips just rips a hole in our soul. Yup, she is one of our all-time greats - without trying. The moments when she watches Shreya (Kareena) take charge of her children and husband find Kajol expressing a mixture of envy and resignation the way only she can. But it is Kareena Kapoor who is an utter revelation. Never before has she demonstrated such a complete understanding of her character's inner life. To the role of Kajol's husband's girlfriend Kareena brings a rare and reined-in passion. Everything that she has done so far on screen is undone as Kareena redefines the role of the Other Woman in Hindi cinema. Admirably the 6(!!) screenplay writers have worked overtime on Kareena's part. She could easily have been the bitch who steals Kajol's husband away. As written in the script, Kareena comes across as flesh blood tears - and yes, as a woman of great beauty. Arjun Rampal has been constantly evolving as an actor. Here he balances out the powerhouse performers on both his sides with a deeply felt emotional binding presence. And by the way, he dances better than Kajol and Kareena in the disappointing 'Jailhouse Rock' number. Sensibly, Siddharth Malhotra has avoided the temptation of too many confrontational moments between Kajol and Kareena. We wouldn't have wanted this tender-sweet look at a shattered family's attempts to hold the fabric of their togetherness in place to end up looking like one of those T. Rama Rao mera-pati-sirf-mera-hai kitsch-kitsch-hota-hai stale-tales from the 1980s. "We Are Family" takes the story of a broken marriage to an area of poignancy where the outer edges remain as strong as the inner fabric of the three characters who find themselves trapped in a tragedy not of their making. From the opening birthday sequence where Arjun introduces girlfriend Kareena to his wife and children, with disastrous consequences, the film exercises a high cool-and-calm quotient in its structuring. At the end, when Siddharth Malhotra has taken the family fable beyond "Stepmom", you suddenly realize it's been a while since we saw a film about Man, Wife and Other Woman tackle the layers of painful separation and reconciliation with such fluency and care. Go for this one. 
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